Cries of "Jesus" shouted toward The Artisanals frontman Johnny Delaware as he took the stage correctly foreshadowed the tone for the night. With a steel wire dangling from his instrument’s headstock, he left no doubt in the San Francisco crowd's mind that he was a tenured advocate of the 11-string guitar. Barefoot and grounded to the stage he stood on, he let the band tease the audience before plugging his instrument into the loudspeaker.

Jam band juggernauts Phish are in the midst of the West Coast leg of their extensive Summer 2018 tour. Fans have been wowed by the sheer diversity of setlists, unexpected arrangements, and intriguing chemistry. After the triumphant Bakers Dozen run at Madison Square Garden last summer, the quartet demonstrated their desire to explore far-off realms and keep their repertoire both expansive and tight.

Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell’s summer tours crossed paths in Portland, Maine Saturday night, co-headlining a double bill at Thompson’s Point, a midsize outdoor venue on the banks of the city’s Fore River. Both artists were backed by their full bands, and each played a set of about an hour and 15 minutes before a sold-out crowd of close to 5,000.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is widely considered the premier music venue in America. Widespread Panic holds the record for the most amount of sold-out shows at Red Rocks. Therefore, when Panic comes to town in late June every single summer since 1997 with the exception of 2004, 2009, and 2012, people travel from far and wide and gather to celebrate the music of this magnificent band. On Friday, June 22, the band that draws the most people to this music mecca played here for the 53rd time for their 49th consecutive headlining sell-out. Fans from all over the country fly in for this special occasion, and on this night, they delivered.

Sitar virtuoso, six-time GRAMMY Award nominee, and daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, performed a gripping concert dedicated the awareness and advocacy of the refugee crisis. This summer she has returned to the United States for a unique series of live performances in protest to the displacement of refugees fleeing conflict areas across the globe. Shankar is raising funds for the humanitarian relief efforts led by the singular nonprofit organization Help Refugees.

Folsom Field – For decades, the venue has been a legendary haven for Deadheads dating back to the early 1970’s. While the Dead had played numerous shows in the Colorado area before, including the Miller Ballroom at CU in ’69, and two acoustic shows in ’70 at the Mammoth Garden (now the Fillmore), nothing quite sparked the interest of the Grateful Dead in the Centennial State quite like the legendary 1972 performance at Folsom Field in Boulder.

With a few nights off and a first-time tour stop for the band, anticipation was high for Dead & Company’s performance in the Duke City, and Albuquerque’s Isleta Amphitheater was to play host to the night’s festivities. Being the smallest venue of the tour, it was surprising that by Wednesday, ticket sales had just barely reached 10,000, and the virtual secondary market was showing multiple signs of over-purchasing.

On July 7, 2018, the seminal five-piece jamband from upstate New York moe. brought their whirlwind Calyphornya tour of nine shows in ten days to a close at the legendary Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. The tour has taken moe. through 4 nights with Phil Lesh at his resident venue Terrapin Crossroads, as well as stops in Santa Cruz, two nights in San Diego, and one at The Fonda Theater in LA before arriving in Pioneertown. This is also one of the first tours moe. has been on since Rob Derhak successfully beat oropharyngeal cancer, so the band is followed by a ton of extra energy and excitement.

Observing the full Dead & Company experience on July 2 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, from early afternoon happenings outside the San Francisco Bay Area venue through the encore’s final exclamation of “We Will Survive!” confirmed that the band’s cultural anthropology, centered around spirited live renderings of Grateful Dead music, still colorfully and cheerfully thrives.

Dead & Company resumed their summer tour last night, after stops in the Northwest and Shoreline, at the Mattress Firm Amphitheater in Chula Vista, CA.  Though the area is gripped in a heat wave like most of the country, the near 100-degree temperatures did not dissuade the faithful from coming out in full force.